Power snatch

Muscle group
Legs
Equipment
Barbell
Primary muscles
Glutes, Quadriceps, Upper back
Secondary muscles
Calves, Hamstrings, Lower back, Side delts
  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and grip the barbell wide, keeping your back flat, chest up, and shoulders slightly ahead of the bar.
  2. Drive through the floor to pull the bar smoothly up to your mid-thigh, keeping it close to your body.
  3. Explosively extend your hips, knees, and ankles to propel the bar upward, rapidly pulling yourself underneath to catch it overhead with locked arms above a parallel squat.
  4. Stand up completely with the bar locked out overhead before lowering it back down under control.

Tips

  • Keep the bar in contact with or very close to your legs from the floor through the pull, so it travels in a straight vertical path rather than swinging away from your body.
  • Complete the full triple extension of hips, knees, and ankles before pulling yourself under the bar, so the bar reaches maximum height before you drop into the catch position.
  • At the catch, lock your elbows fully and position the bar directly over your shoulder joints so the load is supported by your skeletal structure rather than held up by muscular effort alone.
  • Before initiating the pull, set your back in a stable neutral position and keep your chest up throughout the first pull so your torso angle does not change as the bar leaves the floor.

Common mistakes

  • Bending the elbows early during the pull causes the bar to slow down and lose height before you can get under it.
  • Letting the bar drift forward away from the body during the pull makes it difficult to receive the bar in a balanced overhead position.
  • Catching the bar with soft or unlocked elbows means the arms are not fully extended overhead, and the bar is not in a stable supported position.
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